MST Services Seeing the Benefits in a Big Way
Rock Hill, S.C., April 2, 2025 – New Hope Treatment Center’s Multisystemic Therapy services launched in the summer of 2024 and has been making a difference in York County.
Approaching its one-year anniversary, the entire team led by Director of Community Based Services, Krystal Long, has left lasting impressions on families and youth. We checked in with MST Supervisor, Brittany Marsh, along with two of the MST Therapists, Dana Andrews and Jordyn Patton, who shared success stories of the lives they have helped change over the last few months. One of the many is below.
*Full names were not used for confidentiality purposes.
PK and their family began working with the Multisystemic Therapist in September 2024 after being referred to the program. The referral behaviors included defiance, verbal and physical aggression, self-injurious behavior and truancy. PK and their grandmother (referred to as mom) shared they have a strained relationship which leads to verbal altercations and several disagreements within the home.
Our MST Therapist and the family created treatment goals to prevent out-of-home placement. The family agreed to the following treatment goals; PK will decrease physical aggression as evidence by not pushing, punching, slapping or choking as per parent report; PK will decrease verbal aggression as evidence by reduction in yelling, cursing and eliminating threats of harm per parent report. They will attend modified school as evidence by no unexcused absences, per attendance record and teacher/parent report. Along with PK having treatment goals, New Hope’s MST therapist and the mom also developed goals for the legal guardian to implement to improve family functioning. The mom agreed to set defined rules and consequences, increasing parental supervision, learning the ability to regulate her emotions to avoid power struggles and setting boundaries.
The MST therapist facilitated several family therapy sessions with mom and PK. During sessions, mom discovered her parenting style being passive and permissive while PK also identified challenges of being verbally and physically aggressive with highly defiant behaviors. The family worked together to decrease and eliminate maladaptive behaviors. Mom increased supervision while implementing rules and consequences with changing her parenting style from permissive to authoritative.
PK’s psychiatrist and the MST therapist communicated often to discuss the positives and challenges for the family. Given the healthy collaboration between the clinical team, the psychiatrist conducted a medication change for the client. The positive adjustments from parenting to medication switch led PK’s behaviors to change as well. PK decreased their maladaptive referral behavior by eighty percent. They have also engaged in a modified educational setting to reduce truancy. PK and the mom will continue to strength their personal relationship to sustain healthy family functioning.
About New Hope
Since our opening in 1987, New Hope Treatment Centers has been a welcoming place for young people in moments of crisis. Our programs have played a role in countless success stories, thanks to our relational approach to behavioral care. We get to know our kids on an individual level, and work with them and their families toward a brighter next chapter. We believe that positive, empowering, and healthy relationships are the key to changing young lives that have been impacted by childhood trauma. At New Hope, the drive is simple: change the world, one kid at a time, through the healing power of relationships. Our people show up every day, passionate about changing young people’s lives. It’s our name and our promise: new hope for every kid who comes through our doors.
